Dean Israelite is Ready to Play WarGames

Although Seth Gordon was previously attached to helm the project, Deadline is today reporting that MGM is negotiating with Project Almanac‘s Dean Israelite to direct WarGames. Arash Amel (Grace of Monaco) is being set to rewrite the screenplay, most recently drafted by Noah Oppenheim.

The original film was released in 1983. Directed by John Badham, it starred Matthew Broderick as a young computer genius who hacks into a government system and, thinking it all a game, accidentally initiates a computerized countdown to a nuclear weapons launch.

WarGames received a direct-to-DVD sequel in 2006 with WarGames: The Dead Code. It also received a shout-out on the big screen earlier this year in Captain America: The Winter Soldier where it was revealed to be one of the few films Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers had caught up on following decades of being frozen in ice.

Although no one has been cast as of yet in the new film, The Wrap notes that MGM has been looking at both Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars) and Tye Sheridan (Mud) as potential options to headline.